No layperson tracks mortgage rates daily, unless they have a peculiar hobby. Hence, the birth of mortgage rate comparison sites.

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For borrowers, mortgage rate tracking sites are an invaluable tool. Here are the best ones Back to video

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Rate sites are the most important mortgage shopping innovation since the invention of the Internet. They unequivocally help people save more, and their rates serve as benchmarks when negotiating with lenders.

But rate sites aren’t all created equal. With 17 years of mortgage rate tracking and a decade running a rate comparison site under my belt, I can tell you that each site has its quirks. Knowing these quirks is key to scoring not just a great rate, but a phenomenal one.

How rate sites work

Rate sites are in it to make a buck. Their cash flow comes mainly from three streams: charging advertisers (lenders and mortgage brokers) around $40 to $100 per lead; selling advertising; or earning commissions by funnelling borrowers to their own brokerage.

The key takeaway is that rate sites are just the start of mortgage research. Moreover, most of them focus on prime mortgage customers only, so if your credit has seen better days, or your debt-to-income ratio is high, or you have a less marketable property, you’re probably out of luck.

Most rate sites also fall short in giving you the full scoop needed to make a savvy mortgage choice. For instance, they often skip over such mortgage minefields as:

• Nightmarish prepayment penalties
• Lack of portability
• Refinance restrictions
• Crummy early-refinance rates, and
• Lousy rates when converting from variable to fixed

Rate sites also don’t tell you a lender’s qualification criteria. For example, some don’t quote rates specific to your equity. (Rates differ by the size of your loan relative to your home value — a.k.a. your “loan-to-value” ratio, or LTV.)

In short, confirming rate site info with a competent mortgage broker is crucial. For prime borrowers who can get approved anywhere, rate sites give you a running start. They show you which providers are offering deals you should shortlist before contacting them for the whole story.

The best rate sites

Wowa

Wowa is run by a PhD in chemical physics who wanted to make rates more transparent. What separates Wowa is that it strives to be a personal finance encyclopedia. Its mortgage calculators are robust, and its mortgage tips are accurate.

In the rate department, Wowa swiftly showcases top offers by province for the three key loan types — insured, insurable, and uninsured — making lender and broker names clearly visible.

Wowa.ca also spans a broader range of lenders and products than most of its peers and includes rate history. It even shows non-prime rates and rental rates from brokers, which most others don’t — although, the best rental rates are often available directly from big banks.

Rates.ca

Rates.ca, or RDC for short, features a wizard interface that quizzes you before spitting out a rate recommendation without much explanation, leaving some users scratching their heads as to why it’s the best choice.

The wizard at RDC also fences fixed-rate shoppers into only three- or five-year terms, which is a real bummer if you’re in the market for a one-, two-, or four-year mortgage. Plus, it doesn’t cater to all provinces.

RDC does offer a rate table, yet both the wizard’s and the table’s rates sometimes lag in timeliness or competitiveness compared to other sites we monitor. On the upside, RDC’s rate table shows 65 per cent and 80 per cent LTV “insurable” rates, which are often lower than uninsured rates — for those with 20 per cent equity or more and homes purchased for under $1 million.

Full disclosure: this company’s predecessor bought my old rate site, but I no longer have any affiliation with them.

EveryRate

Everyrate is the latest to the rate comparison party, having launched just a few months back. The reason it’s relevant is that it claims to have the most lenders of any competitor. That matters because a regional provider will often have lower rates than a national lender.

The platform also prides itself on a clean interface that dives deeper into rate features than most, a domain where other rate sites typically drop the ball.

Everyrate turns a profit by funnelling users to its own brokerage, so you won’t spot other brokers here (a downside). They also have “Hot Rate” deals with obscured lender identities, mirroring tactics from hotel sites like Hotwire.

Ratehub

This is the most prominent rate site in Canada, and you’ll see them everywhere on Google if you search anything mortgage-related. The issue with Ratehub is that it doesn’t show as many lenders, which means you may miss some deals.

Ratehub also excludes competing mortgage brokers from its site. Instead, it tries to route mortgage customers to its in-house brokerage. Sometimes that’s a good thing, because it frequently has the lowest rates for select terms, but not always.

Ratehub also hides the names of some lenders, which many users find irritating. Its mortgage calculators are top-notch, however, and it also shows rental property rates.

Financial Post

The Financial Post’s rate page has one main goal: to quickly show the lowest insured and uninsured rates from all established reputable providers. It displays both national and regional lenders and only filters out lenders and brokers if they’re deemed unreliable for our readers — albeit, one can never guarantee reliability, even with major lenders.

FP’s rate table isn’t designed to show 30-year amortization rates or insurable rates (i.e., rates for mortgages with 20 per cent equity that meet insurer criteria), but lenders advertising the best insured rates also typically have outstanding insurable rates.

FP’s rate page is meant as an objective launchpad for deeper research, one that doesn’t arbitrarily leave lenders out just because they don’t pay to advertise.

Cutting to the chase

There are other rate comparison sites that didn’t make the cut here, in most cases because, in my experience, they don’t show substantial value.

Keep in mind, when hunting for a mortgage, relying solely on one rate site, broker, or lender won’t be sufficient. To land the best deal, you need to do some legwork and contact multiple providers.

And a crucial reminder: the lowest rate doesn’t always translate to the lowest total borrowing cost. The fine print in mortgage contracts can outweigh small rate discrepancies by a long shot.

Robert McLister is a mortgage strategist, interest rate analyst and editor of MortgageLogic.news. You can follow him on X at @RobMcLister.

Want to know more about the mortgage market? Read Robert McLister’s new weekly column in the Financial Post for the latest trends and details on financing opportunities you won’t want to miss.

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Mortgage rates

The rates displayed below are updated by the end of each day and are sourced from the Canadian Mortgage Rate Survey produced by MortgageLogic.news. Postmedia and Imaginative. Online Inc., parent of MortgageLogic.news, are compensated by certain mortgage providers when you click on their links in the charts.